Deliver Me
by Eccentrickid
Summary: Set after 'Cold Blood', a child appears in the TARDIS; a link to the Doctor's past, friends and memories. Why would the TARDIS allow this being to appear before the Doctor and what news does this bring?
1. Chapter 1

He runs in his dreams. It doesn't have to be in a specific time or place or to or from anything. Quite often he doesn't even know which regeneration is there; he simply runs.

"So where are we off to now?" Amy quizzed as she leaned over the console. The Doctor had originally promised and intended to take the couple to Rio, something Amy seemed somewhat intent on. He personally couldn't see what was wrong with going to see sky-feasters consume a dying star but she was going to have any of that, Rory. No, no Rory now, just Amy and the Doctor like they had started, when he had promised her those five minutes to show her the stars.

"Do we have to go Rio?" he began fiddling with switches and taps.

"All of time and space and you just want a sunny beach. Humans! All the same!"

"Alright then, if that's what you want" she said, spinning away from the console towards the stairs completely oblivious of her loss from mere moments ago.

"I'm off to change into something more boring then!" her voiced echoed as she ventured further away to find the wardrobe.

The TARDIS quaked and shook as if it enjoyed the ride, the cloister bell throbbed for the emergency at hand, holding on the Doctor grabbed hold of the screen; a white flash then nothing and it returned to its regular state.

"NO!" a child shrieked. It jumped from behind the opposite side of the TARDIS console.

The Doctor stared down at the child and the child stared back, the sheer improbability of the moment was stunning, simply and practically impossible.

"What are you doing in my TARDIS?"

The little figure in white and black robes backed away by a few steps. Utter petrifaction had caught the child, defenceless.

The Doctor walked around the console to stand over the little one, who stared back up in the fear a child knows when awaiting inevitable punishment. He was about to repeat himself but he recognised those black and white robes, Amy ran back to the console room, clinging to a bar of railing on the stairs as she went back to the Doctor's side.

"What in the world happened?" she asked, gasping for air before pointing to the child "and _who_ exactly is the kid? Is she one of yours and Rivers-?"

"Oh I really don't think so Amy, can you imagine this place overrun with children?" he replied casually. The TARDIS creaked as though it liked the idea, though the Doctor knew Amy wouldn't understand.

"Screaming, vandalising, noisy children . . ." he finished. The TARDIS changed its tune soon enough.

There was a pause for a while. Amy had folded her arms and was staring inquisitively at the Doctor, who was apparently just staring into blank space. The child caught her gaze and looked back at the doctor, using her to talk.

"Doctor?" Amy whispered, nudging his arm. The Doctor began to walk slowly around the child like a vulture; as if he had been on pause and someone had pressed the play button.

"See, even the TARDIS agrees with me when I say, or rather, think that you shouldn't be here. What I don't understand is why you're dressed like that for this sort of transport, care to enlighten me?"

Furrowing her brow slightly, Amy watched the two thinking that it was already like the Doctor knew what was going to happen. She didn't like it though, watching the Doctor act in such a way towards a kid. She nearly left for the stairs before the child opened its mouth and spoke.

"I've always been dressed like this. I don't understand what you mean"

The Doctor crouched down a little to see eye-to-eye with the apparition before whipping out his screwdriver from his blazer pocket.

"You don't mind if I do a quick scan do you, just to make sure you're not ill? Travel and by that I mean the kind that you can even materialise here . . . it can be quite nasty without the proper methods-"

"-Scan? Like when you check the ships above to find out which ones you have to burn or help?"

"Sort of" the Doctor replied, his voice suddenly turned quiet and solemn. Amy didn't like the tone one bit. She told the Doctor she'd go to her room for a bit, he didn't really seem to notice aside from the quick nod.

The green light covered the child head to toe for several minutes. The Doctor paid attention to the sound while the child watched with the elder dark eyes, now dark emerald with the scanning light.

"You sound fine and you haven't keeled over which is good" he said as paced around the console, the child giggled at that. Peering around the time rotor he asked "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm two-"

"-two centuries?" the Doctor shrieked, twisting knobs as he spun around the console, it almost looked like he were dancing. Looking down to the floor the little one shook their head, the remnants of a faint smile extinguished.

"Blimey, that's a bit young isn't it for one of your kind? I don't suppose you know why you actually appeared here do you?"

Through a dark floppy fringe, the little one looked back up nervously at the Doctor. The Time lord saw that the little bits of emerald had gone from the eyes and was now replaced with orange.

"That's alright, it's alright" he said crouching before the child and clasping his hands together. He put on a smile; the brave kind he knew could comfort others; he was a Doctor after all.

"Are you hungry by any chance? I've a brilliant kitchen a few corridors down, _or_ you could go to sleep for a bit if you want"

But the smile wasn't really working its usual magic; the child was looking at the doctor with a look in its eyes that spelt only sadness, even grief. Grief was often accompanied with guilt, but this one looked too young to really understand that and yet here it was with that pain etched into its gaze.

The doctor rose and extended a hand, he toned down the smile but kept it there "coming? I need to stretch my legs a bit and go for a walk; it gets quite stuffy in here sometimes"

The TARDIS groaned in annoyance while the child took the Doctor's hand; and he let his feet carry them away in the orange tunnels.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, were you supposed to come with anyone else?" he asked, tucking away his screwdriver. He has slyly been trying to listen to the analysis results but found he couldn't concentrate while the child stared at him as if he were mad.

The little one must have been drinking its twelfth Raston nutri-pack before Amy stumbled in. By now the child had set itself in a routine where it would take a nutri-pack from the relevant dispenser, drink it, waddle over to the bin then waddle back, starting the cycle again.

Amy on the other hand stared, and then walked over to the doctor, still watching.

"Doctor is she ok?" she whispered. The childs ears perked up, but paid no full attention.

"Is it a she?" the Doctor asked, by the looks of it he didn't really care but seemed a little interested.

"Well she looks like a she to me"

"I thought it was an it but nevermind" he replied "do you have a name?" he said, speaking out to the little girl.

The child spun around after dropping the nutri-pack; the doctor noted how it had been sucked completely dry.

"He didn't have time to name me, and neither did he-" she snapped before pausing, it seemed like it was a touchy subject.

"-well they were calling me something but they wouldn't tell me and I couldn't hear"

The three stood in silence for a few moments. The child bent down and picked up a nutri-pack it had half-finished, staring at in confusion.

"Now she's thinking 'why didn't I finish that?'" the Doctor muttered carefully into Amy's ear. She too showed confusion; _why did he even have to say that? _she thought.

"So kiddo" Amy said as she wandered over awkwardly, stepping over the packs littered across the floor.

"You'll have to have a name, I don't know about you but I'd be _so_ annoyed if people kept calling me 'kid'"

"Why?" the girl asked, eyes staring on inquisitive. The little smile from Amy's face fell and crashed to the floor "What do you mean?"

"_Why_ do you want to name me? It's harder to pick someone out of a crowd in the dark when you don't know their name. Are you going to try and use a name to get me too?" the girl growled, it wasn't a child anymore; it was an animal back into a corner. _Literally and metaphorically_ the Doctor thought.

The Doctor watched the orange from the walls of the TARDIS where refracted in the little one's eyes. They looked like they were ablaze with memories and knowledge a child shouldn't know.

Amy stood straight and left the room in silence.

The Doctor and the child were sat at the table now, the Doctor at the head and the child sat to the right of him. He cut off its gaze with a question.

"You didn't answer my question from before"

"Which question?" it asked with innocent eyes but the Doctor knew better.

"Who else was supposed to come with you? They could be wreaking havoc-"

"-I'm the only one, don't worry. Can I ask a question?"

He sat back against the chair and sighed, thinking that after all these years one tiny thing like a child wouldn't be able to get the best of him. He obviously didn't know better.

"What's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor" he said, the little one noticed at how proud he sounded, like it was something he liked to say a lot.

"No, what's your name?"

"There are a . . . few people alive who know that. You're not one of them so I'm not telling you"

"If I had a name I'd tell you. I don't think you'd use it against me"

"Why would you tell me and not Amy? I thought she was being rather nice until you decided to scare her off"

"She's human" the little one giggled. The Doctor stared on with a look in his eyes that showed he was genuinely unsure how to handle the situation. A few moments passed after the laughter stopped. There was a crushing sense of unease around them, or rather the Doctor, who knew what the child was thinking?

"She's from a lesser race you know, I saw some humans once. They were just like little ants that were running around, practically waiting to be stepped on"

"You didn't?" the Doctor gasped, leaning away from his seat.

"No! Why would I kill them? They just got in the way"

"Alright" the Doctor said, finishing the conversation. The child left him at the table.

At the main console he muttered to himself furiously, twisting knobs, pushing buttons, bashing at devices, whipping around the scanner as he worked. It was a good few minutes before Amy thought it was safe to come down those stairs.

"What now Pond?" the Doctor barked, not looking away from the scanner.

"Kiddo here just asked me to say sorry to you"

'Kiddo' peered around from behind Amy, nudging her to continue.

"uh, she's said sorry to me and all-"

"She shouldn't even be here!" the Doctor screamed. Amy flinched as she thought he was going to throw something towards her. He was only turning around the scanner to show her patterns and words in different languages.

"You shouldn't even be alive, should you?" he spat at the child.

Amy watched the little one took a step forward, but it collapsed screaming, clutching its head. She looked up to find the Doctor using the Sonic Screwdriver and pointing it at the child.

Immediately she rushed to the little one, but the Doctor ran over and placed himself between the two.

"See Amy? She doesn't like when anyone else messes with her traps" he turned to face his companion but received a burning slap across the face, his companion was crying as she went and cradled the child on the glass floor. He stood and watched what he had done. He realised what else this child had brought through, and he saw what he had been running from.

He muttered "Once a soldier, always a soldier"


End file.
